Innovative teaching techniques for teachers-to-be

Things start getting fun when the instructor introduces tie-dyeing to teach her students about geometry.

Math meets fashion design in one of Pellissippi State’s Teacher Education classes, part of a growing program that helps its students become effective elementary school teachers.

The College’s Teacher Education classes, with special focus on mathematics and science instruction, consist of two years of hands-on learning and teaching practices. The 450 or so students enrolled in the program learn innovative techniques that can be used to teach sometimes difficult concepts to their elementary school students.

Like tie-dyeing?

Meg Moss, coordinator of the Teacher Education program, says learning the basics of tie-dyeing helps her students understand “the whys behind the concepts of geometry.” Having experienced firsthand the connections between math and other subjects, the students can better explain those concepts to small children.

As she was learning how to tie-dye fabrics several years ago in Oregon, Moss said, “I realized that the patterns I created were excellent examples of different types of symmetries. Creating a good tie-dye design requires a lot of reliance on mathematical visualization.”

Student response to the idea of using tie-dyeing in math instruction is initially one of skepticism.

“At first, they wonder how. Then they see the relationships, and they love it. And some have decided to incorporate it into their own teaching,” she said.

Courses in biology, physics, chemistry and earth science follow the same innovative philosophy. In biology, students use foam construction toys such as “Toobers” to learn about DNA and protein. In chemistry, instructor Garry Pennycuff has students make ice cream to better understand freezing points and “freezing point depression.”

“We make the ice cream inside a small coffee can, then put it inside a larger one,” Pennycuff said. The cans are duct-taped with salt in between. Wearing mittens, the students roll the cans back and forth across the room. “At the end, they can eat what they produced,” he said.

This experiment helps the future teachers understand the chemistry principles of such things as how salt de-ices highways, he says.

Moss says the goal of the Pellissippi State program is to equip students with both practical and philosophical understanding before they go on to earn a bachelor’s degree and then go into the classroom. With such learning tools, math and science concepts and phenomena are made real, so they become less abstract to the students.

The Pellissippi State program also is designed to provide its students with exposure to the classroom early, administrators say.

“In their freshman year, they go out to get some experience by observing for 15 hours in an elementary classroom,” said Rosalyn Tillman, assistant dean of the Magnolia Avenue Campus. “Unlike other schools, in which the field experience might be recommended but not required in the first year, we require it.”

Pellissippi State’s program is available on the Pellissippi Campus, the Division Street Campus and the Magnolia Avenue Campus. A dozen faculty members teach in the program.

The Pellissippi State program has partnerships with Tennessee Technological University and Lincoln Memorial University, so Teacher Education graduates can move directly into bachelor’s degree programs at those two universities.

Tennessee Tech offers bachelor’s degree classes on the Pellissippi Campus, in addition to Tennessee Tech’s main campus in Cookeville. The program’s first 20 graduates from Tennessee Tech have completed their student teaching and now are seeking positions as teachers, Moss says.

Pellissippi State students interested in working toward a bachelor’s degree and teaching certificate can also participate in transfer programs with the University of Tennessee, Maryville College and Tusculum College.

Pellissippi State received a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant two years ago to develop innovative ways to teach students who themselves want to teach in kindergarten through sixth grade. The 2005-06 year will be the third year of the grant.

College administrators hope to make additional improvements in the Teacher Education program and have applied for a $2.5 million grant to research how math can be taught better.

“Our major goal now is to improve the math and science abilities of our future teachers,” Moss said. “We also want to help create a more diverse teacher workforce, as well as provide additional resources to today’s math and science teachers.”

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Community Relations Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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